Sunday, February 27, 2011

Tomorrow's the BIG day! Husband finally starts the Police Academy here! We moved here in Jan. 2009 so he could attend the academy that was supposed to start that March. Due to budget cuts and other various delays, the start date kept changing. Then we decided that Husband should finish his masters degree so we deferred his acceptance for a year. Now, after all the delays and waiting, the day is here! Husband is very excited and a bit nervous. The academy will be hard both academically and physically. We are told that within the first week, the cadets will be expected to complete a 6 mile run at a 10 minute mile pace. There are academic tests every Monday and the cadets must get 80% on the test to pass. If they get below 80% on two tests, they will be asked to leave the academy. If they fail the physical training tests, they will be asked to the leave the academy. If they do not comply to with all the rules and regulations (and there are about a million of those!) they will be asked to leave the academy. The police academy requires a lot of its cadets and is one of the best academies in the country. It is intense. It is 32 weeks long, and we don't think there will be any days off other than weekends. Once he successfully completes the academy, Husband will be a police officer here in the city. All the cadets have jobs waiting for them on the city's force. Thankfully, the academy is "live-out", which means Husband will get to drag his tired, broken body home to our apartment every night. We are very excited to finally start this phase of our life! Here's hoping the next 32 weeks fly by!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Those who know me well know that crafting is not my thing. God did not bless me with the ability to craft. Whenever I see cute crafts on TV, in magazines, or on blogs, my first thought is usually "I wonder where I can buy something like that?" But, for some reason, when I saw this blog post last week, I had the crazy thought that I could actually do it. I don't know what possessed me to think that. I guess I just thought they were cute and looked easy. So other day I went and bought the supplies I didn't have on hand (which turned out to be everything but the glue gun!). Today I located my glue gun (it took me awhile to find it!), and decided to give the boxes a try. I wasn't surprised when it turned out to be harder than it looked. It took me about an hour to make two boxes, but I did it! And with minimal burns to my fingers. I didn't go all out like the blogger did; the hearts are from some leftover felt I had from my last crafting project...over a year ago! That's about as fancy as I got. I was satisfied that I was able to make the boxes. I didn't want to push my luck!

I had to take the picture like this because when I stand the boxes up, they lean. It's as if they are mocking me for even attempting to craft!

Friday, February 4, 2011

I didn't want to go to bed last night because I was afraid I would miss the snow that was in the forecast. When I finally went to bed, there was sleet, but no snow. I woke up at 4:15am and rushed to the window, hoping to see snow and I wasn't disappointed! Beautiful white snow covered the grass and sidewalk! I excitedly woke up Husband, who wasn't as thrilled as I was. It's not a lot of snow, not quite an inch, but it has completely shut this city down. It is hard for me to reconcile the amount of snow outside with the havoc it has caused. Everywhere else I have lived, this amount of snow wouldn't cause anyone to think twice about going out. But that wasn't the case here. Roads are closed, including parts of the interstate. We can see the interstate from our apartment and cars were not moving on it at all! Schools, businesses, and government offices are all closed. The buses are barely running. The police cars were equipped with tire chains so they could navigate the slick roads. According to the news, emergency personnel have responded to over 200 car wrecks in about 8 hours. Combine people who don't know how to drive in snow with sleet followed by snow and you have a very dangerous driving situation. Thankfully, Husband and I didn't have to go into work. We are quickly becoming the most popular people in our apartment complex because we own three car brushes/ice scrapers, and we are loaning them out to the people who are using credit cards to scrape the ice off of their cars. Husband says we should start charging!

The snow barely covered the grass. Not snow angel snow or snowman snow, but it's still snow!

Help! It's up to my baby toe!

This is the north bound interstate, about 6 hours after the snow.

Snow covered rooftops! If you look beyond the roof, you can see semi-trucks waiting for the roads to clear.

Snow on our car.

Blowing snow; the closet I came to seeing real snow falling.

Snowball making!

Snow makes me happy, especially when I don't have to go anywhere in it!